Louisa-Marie Anne Darling
__TOC__ Power(s) (NOTE: Louisa's powers are based on/inspired by Marvel's Dagger.) Living Light Generation: Louisa generates a form of living light which is actually life-force. She produces much more than the average human or mutant and this life-force energy is stored automatically. However, while overuse of her powers can be fatal, if she goes for more than a week or so without expending excess energy she can become fevered and delirious, and may eventually discharge her energy involuntarily. Moderate Healing Factor: The continuous absorption and generation of life-force simulates rapid regeneration, allowing her to heal mild to severe wounds in minutes. It is not yet determined if she can regrow severed limbs. Living Light Detoxification: Louisa can extend a portion of this healing factor to others; her light energy can purge a person, removing all manner of toxins, drugs, and other malignant substances from their system. Blades of Light: Louisa can manifest her light into daggers roughly six inches in length and they can be thrown from her fingertips. The maximum effective range is unknown, but the daggers weaken the further they travel. Louisa has a limited control over their trajectory and can reinforce them by compelling them to seek targets. Those hit by these knives have their own life-force disrupted, leaving them stunned until the constructs break down or are removed. Non-living objects are unaffected; if struck, the daggers simply disperse and cause no damage. Living Light Manipulation: Stored life-force energy can be used in a diffused manner, allowing Louisa to illuminate dark areas as if by natural light. She can also project her 'light' into the Darkforce Dimension, travel through it unharmed and even pass this protection to others for a brief time. History Birth Louisa-Marie Anne Darling was born to Isaac and Jane Darling in the early spring of 1987 in a small city just outside of Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Although the mutant uprising had already begun by that time, the family of three were fairly removed, living in a small house in a remote location. Still, the new parents kept an eye and an ear to the events as they developed, providing as well as they could for their newborn daughter who seemed a sunny and easy child even in infancy. Childhood By the time Louisa was nearly four, the uprising was complete and the mutant populace within the United States snatched up positions of power as new laws were set in place to ensure their complete control over the country and the rapidly dwindling number of humans. Despite the distance they had managed to maintain since the onset of the rebellion, mutant agents—mostly scientists and soldiers—eventually came to the Darling household, and many other households, under the new Emperor Xavier's orders to begin genetically testing for other mutants. The intrusion was met with resistance from an unlikely source. Prior to the introduction of the new regime, Louisa had been an energetic toddler with a desire to move, play and be outside, learning to crawl and later walk earlier than other children in her age group. When the new Imperial soldiers arrived they sought to separate the child from her parents. In the ensuing chaos, Little Louisa, who was scarcely four-years-old, presented an early manifestation of her powers by expelling a burst of kinetic energy powerful enough to knock several grown men and women off their feet. In the wake of her outburst, the results of the testing were all but assured. In fact, while Louisa was unquestionably a mutant, even Isaac and Jane appeared to possess dormant X-genes. As a result, the family was not split apart and instead joined a number of other families in an exodus to New York, renamed to Neo-X. Adolescence Initially, the plight of humans as they were culled from the earth to near-extinction had no affect on a growing Louisa. However, as she entered her early teens and began attending the Imperial Institute of Higher Learning, she could not help but become aware of their suffering. Whatever their history with mutants, however the Loyalty Officers tried to paint their cause as just, there was no avoiding the outpouring of suffering and misery from the slums on the fringes of the city, and Louisa was helplessly attuned to it. While she harbored these secret sympathies, Louisa studied and trained hard at school. Her particular power set made her quite a successful athlete and she pursued many different sports with enthusiasm, although she seemed to favor Track with an emphasis on Aerogymnastics. Of the many classes on martial combat, she practiced many but excelled primarily at boxing and kick boxing and became a decent hand-to-hand combatant among her peers. In her senior year at the Institute, a seventeen-year-old Louisa crossed paths with a brooding boy by the name of Vincent White. What began as a tentative acquaintance, one in which Louisa appeared to be the primary instigator, evolved rapidly over the course of the next year and a half although it was never clear in what way. It had started as a project to befriend and cheer up the sullen young man but gradually became more complicated. Younger, embittered and burdened with a connection to the immensely volatile Darkforce, Vincent seemed ever at odds with Louisa who could find ways to be happy in any situation and exuded an energy diametrically opposed to his. Still, somehow the two seemed to find their way to one another on occasion and fostered a brief companionship. Adulthood Louisa and Vincent eventually went separate ways despite her attempts to convince him to stay. Following her graduation from the Institute, she spent considerable time trying to track him down again although not to much avail. In the process, she made the acquaintance of a high-spirited and immensely likable girl named Nyx. The two became fast friends and remained in contact with one another off and on for the next couple of years, even after Louisa relaxed her search for Vincent and acquired a teaching position at the Institute as the physical education instructor. In the following years, life settled into a pretty predictable routine for Louisa while the rest of the world went crazy. Emperor Magnus stepped down and allowed his daughter Wanda to take command of the empire due to failing health. At the same time, resistance groups sprang up and began executing tactical strikes against Imperial forces all over the city, stirring up no small amount of unrest among humans and mutants alike. Instead of joining the fray on either side, Louisa kept her distance from much of the combat, opting instead to remain close to the Institute and help safeguard the well-being of her students with a handful of other staff members. During this time of upheaval, somehow Vincent and Louisa's paths managed to cross once more and this time to disastrous affect. Feeling hurt upon discovering his long-term connection with Nyx and desperate to save him from the Darkforce energy that revealed itself to be killing him, she reacted rashly and attempted to absorb the energy into herself. Although Vincent interrupted the transfer only moments after it had begun, Louisa was able to drain a portion of the Darkforce, and immediately fell ill due to its corruptible nature. Louisa languished in misery for several days before Nyx sent a reprieve (and a gentle scolding) in the form of Malanthe, a young woman of no small magical talent who exercised the negative energy from her system. On the heels of her salvation, Louisa resolved to put the past behind her where it belonged and look only towards the future. Naturally, no sooner did she come to this decision than Vincent, accompanied by Nyx, appeared on her doorstep with a rather unexpected request for aid that very quickly devolved into chaos. In a matter of hours, Louisa's apartment building was demolished, in no small part due to the unexpected trip through the Darkforce Dimension. Making matters worse, a pair of the dimension's shadowy denizens followed them into their reality and began attacking the trio. Thankfully, the struggle garnered the attention of one Adam Warlock, who descended from the cosmos to lend his aid. When at last the fight was over, a brief scuffle with Adam Warlock concerning Vincent resulted in a strange reaction within Louisa when she sought to put herself between the two men in question. As with the Darkforce, Louisa passively absorbed a sliver of Warlock's cosmic energy and it altered her very genetic code, forever mutating her abilities. Simultaneously, it gave her the power she needed to purge the Darkforce from Vincent's body. Last Two Years In the two years since that day, Louisa has attempted to put her life in some semblance of order and has, on the whole, managed to succeed. As the new headmaster of the Imperial Institute for Higher Learning, she is quite busy ensuring students and staff are well looked after. She has implemented a new program by which students can obtain real life experience among their community called The Rising Stars. In her downtime, she has hired a personal trainer to help her develop and refine her fighting abilities with her new powers. When she isn't hard at work in the gym, she keeps in frequent contact with long-time friends Nyx and Vincent, although it is touch-and-go.